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Poverty and another Sticky Subject

Co-hosts Greta Anderson and Ursula Ruedenberg welcome Heidi Thompson, a nurse in Quality Improvement at Mary Greeley, and Dr. Anthony Jones, associate principal of Ames Middle School--both members of this year's Leadership Ames class, a training program of Ames Chamber of Commerce. The occasion is a Poverty Simulation that Leadership Ames organized for members of the community, including city and county administration and elected representatives. Joining them was one of those participants Brian Phillips, who works as an analyst in the Ames City Manager's office. The simulation, an elaborate role-playing exercise, allows people to experience some of the challenges of finding their way through poverty and provided our guests many interesting insights. Then we speak with Mark Edwards, a writer and retired DNR trailblazer, on the subject of ticks. Mark has a literary essay on ticks in the latest Wapsipinicon Almanac, from which he reads a few choice bites.

The Ames Leadership team who put on the Poverty Simulation wishes to express their thanks to the generous financial gifts of The Weitz Company and First National Bank. We also had very generous in-kind gifts from Alpha Copies and Cornerstone Church. It would have been much more challenging without the hard work and support provided by Mike Eastman and Sarah Day at Cornerstone.

They would also like to recognize the Volunteer Center of Story County, Anne and Ashely for conducting the simulation and their work with Sipele Quezada for reaching to the service providers. Twenty-six service providers volunteered to play their real role or something else to help the participants have a better understanding of what families and children in poverty face.